


Lousy Company

by katikat



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Coda, Friendship, Gen, Mushy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-29
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2019-04-14 14:43:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14138196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katikat/pseuds/katikat
Summary: Mac’s a lousy company. Jack doesn’t care. Or, a coda to episode 217. A little heart-to-heart. Mushy stuff. Mac’s POV. (Unbeta'd)





	Lousy Company

He catches up with them outside the war room. They wait for him there - Riley, Bozer and Jack - and it makes him smile and his chest hurt a little. Even when he can’t trust Matty anymore, he can still trust them.

“So, how about we go out and celebrate properly?” Bozer suggests cheerfully, but after having known Bozer for the better part of the last twenty years, Mac recognizes that his cheer is forced, his overly bright smile a facade. For him.

Riley immediately joins in; a quick look at Bozer is enough for her to catch on what he’s attempting to do here. Smart woman. “Yeah, let’s do that!”

Mac sighs, though, and his smile disappears. “Look, guys, I would be a really lousy company tonight and you deserve to actually have fun. So… I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

And with that he turns and heads down the hall, away from them, his shoulders a little slumped, his mind back on the topic of Matty and his father and all the lies that seem to be piling up, suffocating him. He hates it, lies and subterfuge, which is rather ironic for a covert operative but, well, there it is.

There’re quick steps, hastening after him, and Mac doesn’t even need to check to know who it is.  _Jack_. 

“Hey, buddy, wait up,” Jack calls after him and Mac obeys.

When he sees Jack look around surreptitiously, Mac moves down one of the side corridors, towards the milky white glass wall at the end that lets in light but doesn’t allow curious eyes to look in from the outside.

“I thought you wanted to celebrate?” Mac asks with his brows slightly raised.

Jack waves his hand. “Yeah, well, that. I told Riley and Bozer to go on without me.”

“That won’t be much of a team celebration with just the two of them,” Mac points out.

“It wouldn’t have been a team celebration without you there, either, hoss,” Jack shrugs and Mac smiles again.

“So,” Jack continues, watching Mac carefully, “considering what’s going on here, asking you if you’re okay would be dumb, I think. So, I’m gonna ask you this: How badly  _not okay_ are you?” There’s worry in his voice.

Mac sighs and leans against the wall, thumping his head lightly against its rough surface. “You wanna know the truth?” he asks, eying Jack.

Jack nods. “Always.”

With another, softer sigh, Mac replies, “I’m not sure I can do this anymore, Jack.”

“Do what exactly?” Jack frowns.

“This job,” Mac admits quietly.

Jack pauses. “As in general or just this one, for the Foundation?”

Mac shakes his head and then he shrugs, because he honestly doesn’t know. “Remember when I first decided to go into this line of work and you warned me that, in the ‘spy business’, everybody lies?”

Jack nods again and waits for Mac to continue.

“I accepted that. I didn’t like it - I still don’t - but I accepted that. But I should be able to at least trust the people I work with!” Mac says a little desperately.

“It’s about Matty, huh?” Jack catches on, his voice full of understanding.

“How can I trust someone who’s lying to me, Jack? With my life? With your life? Bozer’s? Riley’s? I know you said she might have good reasons but I can’t bring myself to believe it, not after Thornton.” Mac rubs his face. “What Thornton did… she taught me half the things I know about this job! And then she used me - us, all of us! If Matty-if she did the same thing…” His voice fails him and he crosses his arms over his chest, rounding his shoulders.

After a moment, Jack reaches out to squeeze Mac’s shoulder. “Look, Mac. If you want to go, then we will go.”

Mac raises his eyebrows. “We?

“Of course we, dumb-ass!” Jack tells him, annoyed, and rolls his eyes. “I’ve had your back since Afghanistan and that’s not gonna change. You want to hook up with some other agency, I’ll be right by your side. You’re fed up with this whole business, then we’re out and we’re gonna figure out what to do next together. Like always.”

Mac smiles again. “Yeah?”

“Yeah! But!” Jack adds, raising a finger. “I do think we should first find out what’s going on here so that it doesn’t come back and bite us in the ass down the road, you get my meaning?”

Yes, Mac does. “But if you don’t want me to talk to Matty–”

“That’s where you got it wrong, genius,” Jack replies. “It’s not that I don’t want you to talk to her. But you’re thinking of her as a friend who betrayed you and you’re letting your emotions trample all over your judgment. Like I told you back in Chernobyl - and I can’t believe I can now actually say something as stupid as ‘back in Chernobyl’, Christ! - but like I told you, you can’t rush into it half-cocked and spoiling for a fight.”

“Then what do you want me to do?” Mac asks, frustrated.

“Handle this like a mission. Gather intel, find leverage, figure out her angles,” Jack explains. “I don’t want to believe that Matty’s a bad egg but if she is, then I’ll help you bring her down, don’t you doubt that. I just don’t want to see you get stonewalled again or worse yet,  _hurt_. Because if there  _is_ no good reason for all of  _this_ ” –he waves his hand at Mac– “if she isn’t lying to you to protect you or-or whatever, then she might be just the tip of an iceberg and tipping her off might have bad consequences.”

Mac sighs again and leans his head back against the wall, closing his eyes. He knows that Jack’s right. He wants to go in and just-just  _talk_ to Matty, like a friend, demand an explanation. But he can’t deny the possibility that it’s Chrysalis and the Organization all over again.

He opens his eyes when Jack pats him on the shoulder again. “Come on, bud,” Jack says kindly. “Let’s get pizza and beer and watch Bruce Willis kick the shit out of people. That always cheers you up.”

Mac snorts. “That cheers  _you_ up,” he points.

“Well, true,” Jack admits. “So you can tinker with that bike of yours while I enjoy Bruce Willis. Pizza will do us both good. I just want you to think about something else, at least for a while, okay?”

Mac pushes himself off the wall. “Okay,” he agrees.

“Okay, then,” Jack says, hooking his arm around Mac’s neck for a second to make him smile. “And tomorrow, we start looking into that ‘Matty thing’. We’re gonna figure it out, kid. We always do.”

Still smiling, Mac lets himself be dragged down the hallway, towards the elevators. Because Jack’s right. Together, they always figure it out, everything.


End file.
